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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Well, that wasn’t very nice

When the religious dissidents left (or were exiled from)
Massachusetts Bay Colony in early 1638, they went first to the small town of
Providence Plantations on the Seekonk River to meet with another dissident,
Roger Williams, who had helped them negotiate with the Indians. Then they went
on another few miles to the beautiful wooded island they’d purchased from the
Native Americans during the extremely harsh winter when the Boston women were
preparing to move their households (children, servants, household goods, domestic animals), the
men were selling properties in Massachusetts and surveying and exploring their
new island and Narragansett Bay, Mary Dyer was recovering from her traumatic
miscarriage, and Anne Hutchinson was under house arrest in the home of one of
the richest, most strict Puritans in New England, Joseph Weld.

The island was called Aquiday or Aquidneck (“the floating
mass” or “island”), and the town they founded at the north end was first called
Pocasset, the native name for “where the stream widens.” The Narragansett Bay
is actually not an ocean bay, but an estuary for several rivers, so it does
appear that you cross a river when you drive over the bridge from Massachusetts onto the
island. Or in the 17th century, take a ferry or boat ride from the
mainland.

Within two years of settlement, the island was The Isle of
Rhodes or Rhode Island, and the town
officially became Portsmouth.

But because of the heresy of the founders of Rhode Island, Governor John Winthrop called the place “the Isle of Error,” and that name was
often used by other New England leaders in
letters and journals.

The city and harbor of Newport,
Rhode Island were founded and surveyed in 1639
by, among others, William Dyer. The deep-water harbor became the second-largest
harbor and commerce center in New England after Boston, and traded in molasses
and rum, horses and lumber, ship-building, food for the Caribbean plantations—and
slaves. It was a center for smuggling and piracy. Mind you, Boston
was no City Upon a Hill when it came to the same trade goods, piracy, and human
trafficking, but Rhode Island
had a bad reputation from the very beginning because of its religious tolerance
and its rejection of a church-state government.

There were other names for the first colony to encode full religious
liberty as law:

Rogues Island: This pun was an early name for the colony, used in the time
of the Dyers. But its nickname was renewed at the time of the American
Revolution, and its popularity continues today in websites, newspapers, and a
restaurant name.

Asylum to evil-doers.

The sink into which
the other colonies empty their heretics.

The sink-hole of New England, actually a 17th-century
reference to the morals of its residents, but now useful as a meme.

That's actually a sinkhole!

The licentious republic.

A modern nickname I found while googling: Rude Island

The receptacle of all
sorts of riff-raff people.

In 1657, two Dutch Reformed ministers reported their
encounter with Quakers to their religious board in Amsterdam,
that “We suppose they [the majority of the Quaker missionaries] went to Rhode Island; for that
is the receptacle of all sorts of riff-raff people. … They left behind two
strong young women. As soon as the ship had fairly departed, these began to
quake and go into a frenzy, and cry out loudly in the middle of the street, that
men should repent, for the day of judgement was at hand.”

Caeca latrina. Probably the same two ministers (of the town of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island) sent this report to the Classis of
Amsterdam. The Classis was the religious arm of the Dutch West Indies Company
(WIC). The WIC appointed the governor to administer the colony’s business
affairs, and the Classis provided Reformed, Calvinist ministers to serve the
WIC’s towns and outposts. The Reformed doctrines were not far different from
Puritan beliefs.

1658, Sept. 24th.

[from] Revs. J. Megapolensis and S.
Drisius

Reverend, Pious and Learned Fathers
and Brethren in Christ: —
Your letter of May 26th last, (1658,) came safely to hand. We observe your
diligence to promote the interests of the church of Jesus Christ
in this province, that confusion may be prevented, and that the delightful harmony
which has hitherto existed among us here, may continue. At the same time we
rejoice that the Hon. Directors have committed this matter to you, and we hope
that God will strengthen you in your laudable efforts. Last year we placed
before you particularly the circumstances of the churches both in the Dutch and
English towns. And as this subject has been placed by your Rev. body before the
Hon. Directors, we hope that their honors will take into earnest consideration
the sadly destitute circumstances of the English towns. …The raving Quakers have not settled down, but continue to disturb the
people of the province by their wanderings and outcries. For although our
government has issued orders against these fanatics, nevertheless they do not
fail to pour forth their venom. There is but one place in New England where
they are tolerated, and that is Rhode Island,
which is the caeca latrina of New England. Thence they swarm to and fro sowing their
tares.

A 17th-century anatomical illustration seemsto have the man flipping up his belly skinto look at his own large and smallintestines.

The Classis, and indeed the Netherlands government, was very
tolerant of various religions in their country and colonies. The Reform church
was prominent, but they tolerated Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Lutherans, Musselmen
(Muslims), and English Separatists like the Pilgrims who came from England and later moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts.
And Rev. Megapolensis himself had redeemed a French Catholic missionary who had
been captured by the Mohawks of the Hudson
River Valley.
But it seems they had no tolerance for Quakers (like Mary Dyer) or rogues (like her husband, the privateer)! In the mid-1660s, New Netherland gave over control of their colony to the English and it was named New York, after James Stuart, Duke of York. Who was one of the first mayors of New York City in the 1670s? None other than William Dyer the Younger, the son of Mary and William Dyer. Few of my readers saw that coming!

What did the Dutch Reformed ministers mean by calling Rhode Island a caeca latrina? Caecum, in 17th century
anatomy, was the colon or rectum (they used the term interchangeably). Latrina was the public toilet or sewer used
by a military barracks. So the epithet of caeca
latrina meant, basically, the outdoor toilets for feces, a.k.a. “number two”
or “poop.” (One could go on, but surely you’ve heard other slang terms.)

Well, that wasn’t very nice.

*********** Christy K Robinson is the author of this
award-winning blog and books on the notable people of 17th century
England and New England. Click the links to find the books.

2 comments:

Jo Ann Butler wrote in Facebook: Connecticut's Daniel Denison, writing on behalf of the Atherton Purchasers punned that 'Roade Island is (pardon necessity’s word of truth) a rodde to those that love to live in order [and] a road, refuge, asylum to evil livers.' He also called it an unhallowed sanctuary for capital criminals.

The DYER books make great gifts!

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About Me

Christy is an author and editor whose biographical novels and nonfiction book on William and Mary Dyer were published in 2013 and 2014. Her hardcover book "We Shall Be Changed" (2010 Review & Herald) is also available. In September 2015 she published "Effigy Hunter," a nonfiction history and travel guide, and will follow that with a nonfiction book on Anne Hutchinson, then a historical novel set in England in the 1640s-1660s.